what are you doing at 6:30 AM?

who would have thought 7:00 was sleeping in? i remember days where matt and i wouldn't crawl out of bed until well after 10. those days are long gone. tuesday morning everyone decided that 7:00 was just to long to wait to start the day. i tried to get both girls to just lay down for another few minutes. didn't work. i gave up. well, at least they are pleasant in the morning.

leah bean

well, it has been a little over two months since the arrival of our "bean"... and already i cannot imagine what life was like without her. i have vague memories of sleeping atleast 8 hours in a row, but they are just a distant memory at this point. leah is growing like crazy... she's finally put on a little weight and added a couple inches to her petite frame. at her one month doctors visit she was 7 lbs 5 oz. and at this last appointment she was 8 lbs 9 oz. yeah! we made it out of newborn clothes. aubrey had the cutest little pair of jeans when she was in 0-3 month clothes and i kept trying to put them on leah, they just fell off. finally they at least stay on a little better.

as you notice i finally got the camera out at the right time and caught her beautiful little smile. you may notice the toy on her head, this was courtesy of big sister aubrey who thought the toy made a great hat for leah.

we are starting to fall into a routine here at the o'malley house... one that has both kids in bed and unconscious by 8:00 (most nights) PRAISE THE LORD. leah will sleep from about 8 to 2 and then it's a hit or miss what she will do the rest of the night. now if i was wise i should just climb in bed when i put her down at 8 and get the full 6 hours, but most nights i don't get into bed until 11. silly me. maybe tonight i will go to bed by 9. maybe.

there is not much to brag about at 2 months of age. she does "talk" a lot. making all those adorable baby noises that make you smile. i just look at her and say, "is that so? tell me more" and giggle at the fact that she really thinks she is saying something. so cute!

frankly, the kid is just adorable. i think we'll keep her.

my love

great expectations

there were never such devoted....

sisters.... aubrey woke up from her nap today and the first thing she wanted was leah. "i hold leah, i hold her," she cried. i propped up some pillows and stuck a princess under aubrey's arm for extra support. little did i know that it would turn into this. soon she had me placing princesses on either side of my them. matt came home just in time to grab the camera and run upstairs. aubrey's favorite photos of herself nowadays always include her baby sister. "i love you leah," she says and kisses her on the head.

hard days night

aren't they just the sweetest when they sleep. i just love to sit there and watch her.

getta shot

about 2 weeks ago "dr. gene" is all aubrey would talk about. she had gotten hurt playing and kept talking about "go to doctor.....i not scared....dr. gene check aubrey." today was her 2 year appointment and the last of her shots (at least until she is 3). i wanted to make sure (seeing as she was finally NOT afraid of the doctor) that she had some idea what was going to happen. i did the best i could to prep her.

"shots are medicine, they keep us from getting sick. it's going to hurt a little, but i am going to hug you. ok?" i said.

the appointment went great. the nurse called her name in the waiting room and she took off to exam room (they always put us in the same one). i was trying to gather up leah and all our things and she already had nurse debbie in the room checking her. dr. gene came in and she let him check her ears, eyes, heart etc.

then came the moment of truth. that brave little girl walked right over to the table and sat on my lap. she held her blanket and didn't even try to get away when they had to do the second shot. i gave her a big hug and said. "you were so brave".

she talked to pappy and daddy on the phone...."i getta shot. i brave." she said.
we went for a milkshake at burger king. "i like it!"

bellies

i wanted to share this photo with you all a couple of months ago.... didn't get to it.
but it's just to good to miss out on. here is my family.
left to right:
matt, me, lauren, ashley and doug.
doug is my new brother in law (la's husband). doesn't he just fit right in. ;o)

whose job is harder?

it's 11:30 and he's at it again. i can hear the saw going in the basement. up the steps, down the steps.... to the 3rd floor (what will soon be aubrey's big girl room). i can guarantee that i will be in bed before he is. most nights i don't hear him come in....2 maybe 3 in the morning. up at 7 and out the door, off to work to provide for our family. aubrey and i pray for him throughout the day, that God would keep him safe and bring him home to us. back in the door at 4:30 or 5:00. take a break, nope, not him. grabs the kids so i can finish dinner. dinner, baths, bed, bills, more working on the house. weekend fun at chuck e. cheese, so mom can have a night out. climbing up the playground in mc donalds to help his little girl. traffic jam in the slide. "i'm five" i hear a little boy say. "i'm thirty" says matt. i chuckle.
i have no idea what i would do with out him. he breathes life into me. he encourages me. he keeps me sane (and that's no easy job). he does the dirty work. he lets me rest. he doesn't stop.
i love you matt o'malley.....

o'malley updates

believe it or not our house is quiet. of course it's 1:15 in the morning, and technically it's not quiet if you count the noise of matt drilling in our third floor. i know i need to head off to bed, but it's so easy to get done all the things you wanted to get done earlier in the day. didn't you know after midnight was a great time for dishes and making chicken salad? just think...i don't have to do it tomorrow. five more minutes, then i will head off to bed.
right now aubrey is staying at grammy and pappy's house overnight, this gives matt the opportunity to work on her room without waking her up. leah is asleep in her pack-n-play, waiting for mommy to give up on being up and take her to her cradle to sleep.
just wanted to give you all a quick update on what was going on with us. leah is almost 7 weeks old and the kid is adorable. i know everyone thinks their own kid is adorable... but she really is. she loves being held and is a total cuddle bunny. she has smiled her first smiles, but i have yet to have the camera out at the right time. i will try to document it asap. the kid is totally alert, but how can you not be with your sister giddy, screaming and dancing around the room just feet from your head.
aubrey loves her little sister and has been a huge help around the house. she is becoming a pro at making sure leah has her paci, and is great at running to grab whatever i need when i am feeding the baby. she loves to cover leah with her blanky and give her whatever she is playing with... i am hoping this continues when leah is old enough to actually WANT whatever it is that aubrey is handing her.
aubrey is talking up a storm. the things that come out of her mouth amaze me. i may have to copy my friend jen and make a list of some of some aubrey-isms.
matt is working hard and trying to finish the girls rooms. were in no big hurry yet, i am a little nervous about aubrey moving up to the third floor. i have never had my little girl so far away from me at night.
not much is going on with me. loving being a mom. it is the hardest but most rewarding thing i have ever done.
well, i think my five minutes is up... guess i should head to bed. i am going to be wiped out tomorrow morning. should have thought of that.

to each his (or her) own

little leah loves her baths. the kid just floats there....dazed. i remember having one awful experience with aubrey in the bathtub as an infant. it was enough to make me only take her in the shower with me and not even attempt baths until she was to big to hold up and wash at the same time. leah is a whole other story. the minute her toes hit the water she quiets down. you could keep her in there until she pruned up, and as long as the water didn't get chilly she would be content. just goes to show, every kid is different. it's fun learning her little personality.

just leah

i hold her.

you wonder how your toddler is going to react to a new baby in the house. aubrey has done so well adjusting... in fact she loved her little sister right off the bat. poor baby leah (or "babeleah" as aubrey calls her) has been hugged and squeezed, poked, prodded and licked (courtesy of chloe, not aubrey). no wonder 2nd children are so resilient.

we took aubrey on her first outing with JUST mommy and daddy, since leah has arrived. we decided to go see veggietales at the "big movie theater". halfway there we hear from the back seat of the car.

"i lost leah."
"no aubrey, she is a grammy's house".
"go get her."

toddlers make me smile.

"sarbucks hot chocolate"

this should have been posted a long time ago, but we have been so busy...or tired. mostly tired.

aubrey had a FAVORITE christmas movie this year. by favorite i mean, first thing she mentioned everyday when she came downstairs. "choo choo train movie" (aka The Polar Express). now if you have not seen the movie, you should know there is one scene where the passengers are served hot chocolate. mommy had a great idea one night and served aubrey and daddy hot chocolate with whip cream while they were watching the movie.

....after a long day out and about, we decided to treat our little girl to a kids hot chocolate at starbucks.... it made for fun photos, but has resulted in us having to order a hot chocolate as well, when we go to order coffee. let's just say it has started to help us cut down on our coffee breaks.

and yes, the title is not a typo. "sarbucks" is one of aubrey's favorite places to go.

a life worth living

there are three people who mean more to me then anyone else in this entire world. i am amazed that God has allowed me to be a part of their lives. i sometimes wonder what i add to this little bunch and why God chose me to be a part of this family...
there are days i can be a little "cranky" as i have been told by my two year old... "mommy cranky". there are days that i worry about the unimportant things instead of singing to leah, coloring with aubrey or holding hands with matt.

thankfully though, my family is patient with me and loves me just the same. i am trying hard to let the dishes sit in the sink for a little while longer, to not run around behind aubrey cleaning up toys, to sit next to matt and read a book instead of checking email for the 13th time.

i love my little family desperately and i want them to know it.
my prayer is that my actions will speak louder....

rubba-dub-dub

leah's first sponge bath... we tried to do it in our bathroom sink. you forget how wiggly and slippery those little newborns are. add in aubrey crying because leah was crying and it made for quite an experience. our second attempt at a bath was a lot quieter and a lot more productive. you would think we would have this stuff down after doing it once. nope. i think things like baby sponge baths make room for things like potty training after time. no worries though.... we are pros again. i think.

Our Christmas Blessing

December 11th, 2007

I am sitting here staring at my new baby girl. I feel so truly blessed with this healthy little bundle. Little Leah has taken us on quite a ride these past 9 months. From our scary time in the Dominican Republic... to all the tests at the end of this pregnancy... to our unexpected repeat c-section on Friday. God has been so good to us, and I am excited to go home and be a new, different family. I don't feel the anxiousness that I did the first time. I have felt God's presence these past two years as I have stumbled through being a mom. He has always given me exactly what I needed for each moment. I know he loves and cares for me... and that He listens even when I am up alone in the middle of the night feeding a rocking a crying newborn. I know who I can call on and I anticipate many mornings that Aubrey, Leah and I pray for our day.

Lord God,
The past few days have been a whirlwind and I am sorry that so often I only call on you in times of pain or anxiousness... Thank you for sustaining me through it all, you are a good God. Thank you Lord for Leah, for the joy she has already brought to our little family. I have seen you work in the "every days" of motherhood and as I start to think about what lies ahead, being a mom of two (wow, that's weird to say). I know that you will be there to help me. Lord, help me to come to you to be filled up, so that I can be the best mom that I can be in my humanness.
Lord, I pray for Leah right now that same prayer I prayed for Aubrey. That she would come to know you and love you.... and that she would have a heart for this hurting world. Let both my girls have a sensitive spirit which sees past themselves and speaks into the lives of others. Let them see you in everything. Be glorified, Lord, in each of our lives as we figure out how to be a family of four.
Lord, thank you for your continued blessing. Please keep us protected and safe. Help Aubrey to know how much she is loved and transition well. Help me to honor Matt, he is so amazing and I don't want to loose perspective because of hormones or frustrations. Help me to take it easy and relax and enjoy our time together as a family these next few days.
Thank you Lord, for your son Jesus. Remind us again this holiday what you have given us. Salvation..... and your Amazing Grace.
In your Precious Name, Amen.

December 7th, 2007

ok, it's my turn.

some of you may remember and if not you can check the "dust" but 2 years ago i played a mean trick on matt. i had gone to the hospital to see if they could flip aubrey because she was breech. after and unsuccessful attempt turning our little girl i decided to call matt and play a little joke. i called and said, "hey hun. what are you doing? um, they decided to take me today. you need to come to the hospital." to which he replied, "what?!? we have 2 more weeks!"

just kidding.....

PROBLEM: when you lie, it comes back to bite you in the butt. fast forward two years and i need to make that phone call again, but this time it's the truth.

i walked out of an ultrasound with orders to go directly to labor and delivery. leah was progressively getting smaller with each ultrasound that they did, although they have yet to know why. i picked up my cell to call matt and looked at chris and said, "he's not going to believe me.... i've said this before."

(for matt's version see previous blog)

chris took me right over to labor and delivery.... new problem. I DIDN'T BRING ANYTHING WITH ME. i really didn't think that "today is the day" and my bag and THE CAMERA were sitting at home on the bedroom floor.

all i could think was, "oh great. leah is getting gypped already. there won't be any photos of her birth, she'll think we love aubrey more. she'll be scared for life. i will have to pay for counseling." (ok maybe not all that, but at least first part.)

thankfully, they made us wait quite a while and we had the camera just in time to capture our little girl's birth. i hadn't anticipated another c-section.... but went into mommy-mode as soon as our doctor explained to us what would be best for leah. we had our little girl in our arms minutes after i went in. when i heard those first sweet little cries i gasped. i had been waiting for that moment for so long. there is something about our whole experience in the dominican republic, the early contraction and bed rest that made hearing her cries so important. she was here, she was safe, she was healthy and she was ours.

she's here!

friday at 11:45ish i get a call from melissa: "i'm not joking with you this time... i'm at the hospital and they're sending me over to labor and delivery to have a c section."
naturally i responded "your joking right, your not being serious." and so the story begins.

melissa had gone to the hospital to have yet another ultrasound and the verdict was that leah was the amazing shrinking baby. each time measuring a little bit smaller than before. so the doctor said "better out than in..."

so i got off the phone and looked over at greg lusby (as we stood in the tiny electrical closet of the office building we were working in) and said "did you hear all that?"
greg said "yeah."
i said "ummm.... i guess i have to go?"

off the the hospital i went. apparently to sit and wait for a bit, which i did not think was usually part of a un-planned, last minute, not necessarily emergency c section. in any event i arrived at the hospital around 12:15pm. first the plan was 1:30pm she was going in... then 2:30pm. then finally the anesthesiologist arrived (he's the one we were apparently waiting for)... and he said "umm... it's going to be a little longer i have to go back downstairs for an emergency."

we said "no big deal... no rush"

finally around 4:15pm melissa was wheeled into the OR to get her spinal (which is some mysterious thing that apparently husbands are not allowed to watch)
by 4:25pm they were calling me in.
by 4:33pm Leah Angely O'Malley was born.

6 lbs. 1 oz. 18" long

beautiful!

death to frosty

you figure it out.